Karen Read Accused of 2nd Degree Murder in John O’Keefe Case
Karen Browse. (Impression by way of CBS Boston/WBZ-Tv set screengrab.)
A Massachusetts grand jury has indicted a lady on next-degree murder and other rates after her police officer boyfriend turned up dead in the snow earlier this year.
The indictment, which was introduced early Thursday evening by the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office, carries upgraded expenses towards Karen Read, now 42, of Mansfield. Read through was initially arrested Feb. 1 on a manslaughter warrant issued by a district court judge in Stoughton. The new indictment accuses Study of next-diploma murder, motor automobile manslaughter, and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death, Norfolk District Legal professional Michael W. Morrissey’s office wrote in a push launch.
Killed all through the Jan. 29 incident was John O’Keefe, an off-responsibility Boston police officer. O’Keefe was “found unresponsive exterior a Canton residence,” Morrissey’s place of work explained. That residence was explained by area information reports to have been on Fairview Road.
Officer John O’Keefe is observed in an formal portrait released by the Boston Law enforcement Section.
As Legislation&Criminal offense formerly noted, O’Keefe was found mortally wounded throughout a weekend of substantial snowfall — a Nor’easter blizzard. He was taken to the Good Samaritan Healthcare Heart in Brockton and was pronounced useless numerous hours immediately after he arrived at the hospital. Prosecutors mentioned in court docket back in February that hypothermia was a contributing aspect in O’Keefe’s demise.
Boston ABC affiliate WCVB noted in February that prosecutors imagine Go through and O’Keefe went to at the very least two bars the Friday night right before O’Keefe died. Soon after that, they allegedly went to the Fairview Street residence where a good friend (who was also a police officer) lived. It was exterior that officer’s property that O’Keefe was found Saturday morning, the tv station stated.
Examine allegedly informed investigators that she left O’Keefe at the Fairview Street dwelling due to the fact she “was not sensation properly,” WCVB documented. (NBC affiliate WBTS stated Read indicated she was getting “stomach challenges.”)
“She mentioned that she dropped the sufferer off. She produced a a few-place switch in the street and still left — did not see the victim in the dwelling,” prosecutor Adam Lally stated, in accordance to WCVB.
The up coming morning, Browse allegedly informed investigators that she tried using to attain O’Keefe but couldn’t contact him, in accordance to WCVB. A “distraught” Read named a buddy who was apparently with the pair the night time prior to and claimed O’Keefe was missing, the Tv station mentioned.
WBTS prompt that Read through basically known as two pals to aid find O’Keefe.
“John’s dead I marvel if he’s lifeless,” Go through allegedly informed a person of her close friends during a 5 a.m. call, in accordance to WBTS. “It’s snowing he received strike by a plow.”
The buddy referenced by WCVB reportedly supplied to travel Browse to glimpse for O’Keefe simply because Examine was “too hysterical to travel.” The mate, a female, drove Go through employing Read’s individual motor vehicle. During the vacation, Read through allegedly said, “Could I have hit him? Did I strike him?” in accordance to WCVB’s accounts of former courtroom proceedings and court docket paperwork.
Read through and her pal (or buddies) arrived at O’Keefe’s household and discovered “a cracked taillight on Read’s vehicle,” WCVB documented.
O’Keefe wasn’t at his dwelling, so the two ladies then went to the property on Fairview Street where by Go through allegedly dropped off O’Keefe the evening just before, WCVB reported. There, they observed O’Keefe “lying near a cluster of trees.” They begun to accomplish CPR, according to WCVB, but he was “cold to the contact,” according to courtroom files.
In courtroom, prosecutors said O’Keefe was at minimum partly protected with snow. Citing “multiple” nonetheless unnamed sources, WCVB noted that “O’Keefe was suffering from head trauma.”
When speaking in court for the duration of an previously stage of the proceedings, prosecutors characterised Read’s responses to a paramedic who responded to the scene as some type of an admission: “I hit him, I strike him, I hit him, I strike him,” Go through allegedly stated, as Lally place it.
WBTS stated that an autopsy report uncovered “several abrasions to O’Keefe’s correct forearm, two black eyes, a slash to his nose, a two inch laceration to the again of his head, and several cranium fractures.”
The DA’s place of work advised that while those accidents are seemingly known, the entire autopsy conclusions are not total.
“While the evidence accessible at this time is not inconsistent with an accidental slide, the Office of the Main Professional medical Examiner has recognized the circumstance and will determine the bring about and fashion of death,” Morrissey’s office environment wrote on Thursday.
Browse pleaded not guilty to the authentic cost when she was arraigned on Feb. 2. She has been totally free on a $50,000 money bail set by a Stoughton District Court docket decide.
Read through was re-arrested at her home all over 5:00 on Thursday, according to Morrissey’s business. She is scheduled for arraignment at some issue throughout the midday hours in Norfolk Remarkable Court in Dedham. Morrissey’s office claimed the arraignment might happen sometime involving 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. nearby time, but the actual time would be “at the court’s discretion.”
David Yannetti, Read’s defense legal professional, claimed on the courthouse actions in February that Go through was staying billed due to “political pressure” simply because O’Keefe was a law enforcement officer. Yannetti mentioned in court when the primary expenses ended up submitted that his consumer exhibited no legal intent.
Back in February, O’Keefe’s spouse and children introduced the next statement:
John was not only a dedicated law enforcement officer, he was an exemplary guardian, son, brother, uncle and buddy and we were so fortuitous to have him as a element of our life.
When John’s sister handed away, and then her partner did as perfectly a brief time later, John welcomed the prospect to increase his beloved niece and nephew and construct a dwelling and a daily life all over their needs. Men and women chat about someone who would give you the shirt off their again but that was certainly who John was, and it is heartbreaking for us to suddenly be conversing about him in the earlier tense.
We recognize the outpouring of assist we have obtained but we inquire for privateness at this time, and will have almost nothing even more to say, as we mourn this unbearable loss.
The Boston Police Division released the next statement in February:
It is with deep regret that Superintendent-in-Main Gregory Lengthy announces the passing of active-obligation Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. Officer O’Keefe was a 16-year veteran of the BPD who served admirably in numerous assignments through his career. John will be considerably missed by his mates and colleagues in this article at the Boston Law enforcement Office as we send our heartfelt condolences to his household, and loved ones all through this complicated time.
Examine was operating as an adjunct lecturer at Bentley College, WCVB confirmed.
Beneath Massachusetts legislation, the probable punishment for 2nd-diploma murder is lifestyle in prison with the possibility of parole.
Massachusetts statues determine second-degree murder as in essence one thing other than to start with-degree murder:
Murder dedicated with intentionally premeditated malice aforethought, or with intense atrocity or cruelty, or in the fee or attempted commission of a crime punishable with loss of life or imprisonment for life, is murder in the to start with degree. Murder which does not surface to be in the 1st degree is murder in the second diploma.
2nd-degree murder is just one of several Massachusetts crimes a lot more adequately outlined by case law. The commonwealth’s design jury directions boil that situation law down to the subsequent, which reads like a contemporary prison statute in most other states:
In get to verify murder in the next degree, the Commonwealth will have to establish the next aspects:
(1) The defendant induced the dying of [victim’s name].
(2) The defendant:
(a) supposed to eliminate [victim’s name] or
(b) supposed to bring about grievous bodily damage to [victim’s name] or
(c) intended to do an act which, in the circumstances recognized to the defendant, a reasonable individual would have regarded designed a plain and powerful probability that death would outcome.
The unique scenario was quantity 2255CR66 in Stoughton District Court. An electronic court docket docket look for from in Norfolk County does not comprise any data about the scenario as of the time of this report. Read’s title also does not look on a everyday courtroom docket in Norfolk County.
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